Elementary improvement: FEMA housing for teachers in New Orleans is an unambiguous step toward disaster recovery

FEMA housing for teachers in New Orleans is an unambiguous step toward disaster recovery.

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Mention FEMA and New Orleans in one breath, and the reaction in most company will be a curse or sigh.

This month, though, the disgraced federal agency has embarked on a model relief project. It has donated $14 million worth of furnished housing units to certified teachers willing to come home to New Orleans.

Of all the structures that Katrina swept away, New Orleans' disastrous, disrespected public school system was likely the least mourned. What replaces it may be the single most important cornerstone of the new city.

New Orleans' new public schools must do more than impart literacy and math, a task they did badly before. Through the example of their teachers, the schools will have to show the city's lower-income children what competence, productive citizenship and hope look like. Schools will also have to prove to these children that New Orleans cares what happens to them.

The first step in trying to achieve this was a state takeover of 107 out of 128 public schools last year. That hasn't functioned well. First the state announced a demanding re-screening process for teachers — hurtful, perhaps, but as necessary as purifying drinking water for a transplant patient.

Then the process was abandoned. An acute teacher shortage forced Louisiana officials to lower standards for New Orleans, applying a far more lenient standard for re-certifying teachers, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

The same teacher shortage, though, motivated at least one promising development: a state, municipal and federal partnership to woo teachers back to town. Funded entirely by FEMA, New Orleans is offering 250 free, fully furnished modular housing units for certified teachers who can show they were displaced by the hurricane.

It's a shame the partnership didn't offer the apartments earlier in the year, awarding them to teachers who ranked highest in a rigorous certification process.

But the project nevertheless displays what should be the operating principle for rebuilding New Orleans: commitment to attracting upstanding residents who otherwise might find the city economically or socially unwelcoming.

Such residents include former locals who are eager to work in reconstruction but unable to manage the skyrocketing rents or other obstacles. They also include the precious, often poorly paid workers who nourish their city's core: educators, mental health workers and social service experts.

Finally, while New Orleans' leaders have a duty to make the city livable for returning residents, its recovery also calls for a transfusion.

Imagine a New Orleans that became a magnet for motivated teachers nationwide: educators eager to join a challenging, but concerted campaign in top levels of government to heal a diseased school system.

New Orleans' public schools will be crucial to the city's new life. State and federal leaders should find ways to lure not just returning teachers, but also superb educators across the country. By investing in New Orleans' teachers, FEMA shows understanding of what true recovery demands.